Dave Wilbert Country Singer- Songwriter

Dave Wilbert is a country singer-songwriter whose music reflects the values and experiences that come from a life rooted in rural America. Raised around farming and agriculture, Wilbert developed a deep appreciation for hard work, small town living and stories that come from everyday life! Y'all check Dave out and follow, subscribe.

www.davewilbertmusic.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, this is Dave Wilbert, and you're listening to me on the David Bradley Show.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Mr. Wilbert, how are you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. I'm uh actually stoked uh to get you on because there's a lot of things that you're doing that I really, really like because you're actually bringing more of the uh American country, farming everything else into your lyrics and your music, man. I mean, I just it's it's thrilling for me because you don't hear a lot of that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Well, I appreciate it. You know, I just I just sing what I know and write what I know and what I like. You know, I grew up in a little bitty small town and was always into the outdoors, you know, fishing, and I didn't get into hunting until later, but you know, the rural life was certainly how I grew up, and uh now later in life that I've uh um I've kind of been able to live it, you know. Uh have some dirt and have some critters and uh do a little bit of hunting, a little bit of fishing as much as I can.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Well, yeah, I mean, trust me, it's uh because people laugh at me because I was born and raised in Nashville. And I got told alive, well, you're not a cowboy, you ain't done this and you ain't done that. And I'm like, yeah, I don't freaking know. My dad had friends that had farms, and every freaking weekend, man, we were out at those farms baling hay, stacking hay up in the barn. And when tobacco season rolled around, we were out there cutting it, staking it, hanging it, smoking it. I mean, it was just crazy as I'll get out. And then I was listening to your song, and I'm like, dude, you even talked about running barefoot in a creek with a crawfish, man. And I'm like, that was one of the things I used to love to do.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I still do it. Not barefoot. You know, not barefoot now.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

No, you can't. But uh, but no, I think the lyrics, if I didn't write it, then I try to find songs that I wish I had, you know what I mean? Yeah. I'm like, yeah, man, I wish I'd written that song. And oh man, that that sounds just like how I live or lived, you know, because I think there's a lot of folks out there that uh still live that way, and then there's folks that wish they did. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Well, um, I've talked to several other artists, and and and one of the biggest things for me is I remember growing up doing all that stuff, and like we stood outside to get movie tickets to see a movie, or I think when Star Wars first come out, I'd my dad stood in line for like almost two days to get tickets, you know. And uh, if you wanted to see a concert, it was municipal auditorium, and they were wrapped around the building waiting to buy tickets, you know. And I just I feel sorry for kids today because they're not able to experience some of the things that were just natural for us.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Sure. Yeah, I think the the phone and I mean the digital technology is all great and well, but it certainly has dehumanized our our populace, right? So everybody lives on their phone, they can communicate on their phone, they do their banking on their phone, they do everything on their phone, and they don't interact with folks and they're socially awkward. I mean, candidly. And then uh and then you still got geezers like me that still do it the old way. And uh, but you know, um there's some things, don't don't get me wrong, that you know, being able to plug your address in. I was in Bellevue earlier and I plug your address in and it took me right to you. You know, olden days I'd had to had a map out and a compass and you know, probably a thermos of coffee to make my way to you. So yeah, I'm you know, there's some benefits, don't get me wrong. But you're right. There's some of the stuff that uh that rural living or even city living, like you talked about the municipal auditorium thing, going down and getting tickets, waiting in line, um, you know, whatever it is or whatever it was, is just different. Now it's on now it's a couple strokes on the phone and you know, you're on the internet and uh it it is a um it's we've been kind of dehumanized in a way, and yeah, but there's a lot of man, there's a lot of stuff coming out now with with the effects of these of that type of lifestyle that's not great uh for these uh youngsters, you know, they just don't have the coping skills and interactive skills that uh we take as second hand, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Well, yeah, and and they're not having to go out there and look for their own daggum switch to get their butt whooped either.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

No. No, that or the the handy uh extension cord on the back of the Mr. Coffee Oh yeah, yeah, you know, one of those switches that was the rubber kind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

It's crazy. But I loved how you're able to actually put all that into lyrics and and create this music that you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate it. I I'm I I haven't written everything you've heard, I didn't write all of it. You know that. I mean, I've got some great, great songwriters that I'm friends with, and uh I write songs, but I don't consider myself a national songwriter. I mean, I I can deliver a song and I can write a song, but I'm not like I would never put myself in the same breath as some of these folks in town that are just incredible. You know, the guy that I that's my mentor's guy named Carrie Kurt Phillips, and he's uh, you know, I think he's in the Hall of Fame. If not, I know he's been nominated uh songwriter. He's retired now, but you know, just down on the farm at Pickup Man and things like that that are household, you know, if you like country music, those songs are iconic, you know. Yeah. Um and then I have other guys too and gals that I'm familiar with, friends with that uh have have given me great songs over time. And then when I first came to town though, man, I was so intimidated to songwrite or to write songs. I, you know, I just kind of kept myself as hey, I'm just an onstage performer, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Um and as I've gotten older now and uh could care, I don't I don't really mind if they think I can write or not. I but I do know the difference between something that's good and not. Like I've written things that I know aren't good. Um and I my ears the I trust my ears though. When I hear something, I'll know it. And then if I write something and I know it, I know it. So uh I I I am lucky to have had a few of my own things uh that have been on these projects. Um you know, yeah, and and I write with some guys, I do write with some guys that are just very talented and they lift me up quite a bit, you know. I may have an idea uh or they may have a melody and and we come together and thank you for your compliments. And uh I don't uh it means a lot to me because I I'm not a I don't call myself a you know, I don't have thousands of songs that I've written. Right. I may write man, I may write five or ten a year. Just because I just uh I've got so much other stuff going on. If I get the mood to write, then if I feel that feeling to write, I know it's something kind of uh meant to be. Right. But I don't say, okay, I'm gonna go write tomorrow at ten o'clock and sit down and try to force something. That's just not how I do it.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Well, that's you know I don't consider myself a songwriter. I've never wrote a song in my life. But I got stories. And then when people can turn those stories into a song, sure, I stand there with my mouth agape because Yeah, I remember what I told you. And this emulates a lot of it. But how did you do that?

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

I I it just astounds me how people can do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, I tell you, the toughest thing I think in the music business uh to create are melodies that are unique. Um I struggle with melodies, I don't struggle much with lyrics, and but I do struggle with coming up with kind of creative new melodic lines or flows. So I do have some folks that um in my camp or buddies of mine that are good with melodies. So if they send me something interesting, I'm like, I like that. Let's let's try to write that, you know. Um but then again, like like I said, I'll I'll write I'll write a couple songs uh you know I'll write four or five a year, but that that's that's really it. I mean, to be truthful. So I've got I've got to find um I've gotta find some songs and write some songs for the back half of this project. We just cut we just cut four new things. Um one of them, two of them I wrote, which is strange because I don't have that much volume, right? Yeah. But I've got um I've got uh I've got uh another project that we're gonna do this fall, kind of the back half, the other five or six songs. And uh I don't have I don't have something that I feel strong enough right now in my own repertoire. So I'm out kind of looking and but I'm also gonna co-write with some folks and I'll probably have hopefully have one of those. So I try to have, you know, maybe maybe two songs on a 10 track or maybe three, you know. But it's always the best song wins, you know. Um I've always had the attitude that hey man, if your song's better than mine, I'm gonna cut it, you know. Yeah. If I if I think it's something that I've got a real high bar because of the songs that I've been given by other writers. So I don't want to I don't want to have a decline in quality, you know what I mean? Right. Uh I think you hear you hear my ears, because my ears hear good songs. And when I and that's when I sing 'em. That's when I cut them. You know what I mean? So they they should all kind of be on par. Yeah. There's not a dip, I hope, you know.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Yeah. Because it's uh it's strange because I've gone to a bunch of songwriters rounds and everything else. And I always tend to lean more towards that song that I might have a little bit of reflection with. And a catchy chorus has always gotten me. Sure. It was just something that I could remember, you know?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Well, there's a lot of people that say that you gotta hook people in the first eight seconds, you know, with the signature lick, you know, from the music, yeah. The the the music stamp right out of the gate. Uh so you want that identif like chattah Chattahoochee, right? You'll know it. Yeah. Friends of no places, I mean Hotel California, you know, name all these songs. And and before you even hear the first lick lyric, you know the song. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? That's the I it's the identifier. And I think it's the same thing with the hook, you know, the chorus, they call it the hook, right? Because it has to hook the listener. Yeah. So um uh you know, some songs are just the chorus is always very, very important, but then I listened to there's some other artists that are not in our genre necessarily that I grew up listening to where it was more about the storytelling that you just talked about, and the title of the song was just barely mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Uh I think of a song called Empty Chairs by Don McLean, and he says that line one time. Yeah. In that not even in the chorus. You know what I mean? So great songs are just great songs, man.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Yeah. It's uh and it's weird though how one song may connect to a hundred thousand people, and then one song might connect to a million people, you know? I mean, it's just it's crazy how it all works.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

I think a lot of that nowadays, and I don't want to be uh get off my lawn guy, but a lot of the music that's being forced down people's throats you know, via radio, and now that the labels have part ownership or whatever in the in the streaming formats, you know, they're they're taking their artists, obviously, and they're gonna push those artists, whether the song's great or not. Or shelves some artists. Or shelves some artists, sure. So, you know, it's uh I don't know. The one thing I do like about the streaming platforms is it gives independent artists like myself uh a voice and an opportunity to be to be heard. And and I've always said just let the best song win, man. You know, I don't like the fact that I can't that I've got gatekeepers at radio. I think it's horseshit to be candid. Yeah, it's weird. But um because I think if our songs, if my songs, and I'm speaking selfishly here, but I think if my songs were heard on the radio, they I know they would stack up. Um I know they would. Yeah, but they're not the but they're not being heard, you know, but by us putting uh all the effort behind the streaming formats. But if we had that passive um radio market behind us to where you're just driving down the road and it's it's like right now it's drive time and you get the station turned on and you hear tractors and trucks or take it outside or live from America or anything like that, it's gonna hit. Yeah. You know? So I'm a little bit I'm not jaded because I love the fact that these streaming formats give me a chance, but I'm I'm also cognizant that that they're also throttled down by the labels. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Well, I mean, so it's uh it's the craziness of the whole industry, really.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

I mean, it's but I mean I've never really music has never been nowadays it's it's be it's really just about the music and the passion of playing and the fun and the joy that I get from uh I do all everything that we're doing is to be on stage. That's it. The reason I go in the re the studio and and cut records and write songs is so that we can go out and play it live. Oh yeah. It's like a professional business card, right? That's all a CD is, or uh you know, they make CDs anymore, but a stream, all that is is an invitation to come see us live. Yeah, in my opinion. Exactly. So nowadays, i and once uh once you have this kind of addiction, you can't really shake it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

And uh That's one addiction that I I I've not shook in well, let's see, I'm 60 now, so that was what 50 48 years. In 48 years, my biggest thing is live music. I love live music. Sure. I mean it's you get that rush, you get I love when an artist is on stage and they sing that song and the whole audience is singing back to them, and it just turns into a one of the biggest, I think, biggest community get togethers ever.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

And I love that. It's a great vibe, and it's a place where people can go and and hopefully have some fun and for you know, forget about life. That's that's kind of a I don't think you can forget about life, but you can escape some of the trials that we're all faced with for two or three hours, right? And come together and and just enjoy the uh enjoy the music, you know, that's what it's all about. So and like I said, man, it's it's uh it it's it's just part of my DNA now. And I don't make music for the money because unless you're unless you're at the top, you know, the money is is it you don't keep any. It just passed it's just pass-through income.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Well, that's why everybody I know uh we all got day jobs.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

So I have a couple couple businesses that I own that I do in addition to music. And um you need help.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

I need a good farmhand.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Well, so farming and and then I have some agribusiness that I do. And um I was just talking and I was just talking off air. We were a buddy of mine, we were sitting there chatting about the opportunity that I have because I have some land and uh my daughter's fixing to get married, so we're going through all the uh all the gyrations and yeah uh to to get everything kind of dialed in for her. And I'm like, well, you know what? Now that now that we've done all that, we're gonna have a wedding venue. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not kidding. Because I'm like, well, we've already sunk all this money. How do we how do we get our ROI back?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

You know, well, I mean, when you was talking about it with him and everything, I was eavesdropping a little bit, and and the only thing that kept popping into my mind was Dave Stock.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

I like it. I like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yeah, yeah. So you could do what, maybe have the wedding venue open where people can come in and get married and have fun, and then uh you could do like maybe two shows a year out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

That would be big. Yeah, because we got the we have the facilities for it, you know, where you we've got the big covered uh or open-aired kind of pole barn type deal with uh uh one of the guys that runs sound in that a lot of sound business here in Nashville just happens to be five minutes down the road, neighbor of mine. Uh sweet. But he's always you know, if he's in town, but he's always he's booked out too. But but yeah, man, so we we have the facilities to do a Dave stock or a wheelbilly stock, you know. There you go. So uh I don't know. We'll find out. But it's I'm definitely gonna do something because I'm gonna get my money back one way or another. I you know, honestly, I kind of like that wheelbillies. Well, that's what we call it's what's what we call our fan club. It's wheelbilly nation. Well that's name being Wilbur. And then we've got uh oh my gosh. We've got uh everything is everything is uh Dave Wilbert music, and it I don't know, we just kind of my my daughter actually is the one who came up with the name. She said, You ought to call your fan club Wheelbilly. That is awesome. I love that. Uh anyway, yeah, so that's Wheelbillies.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

I'll get out.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Yeah, because uh my girlfriend is actually in Florida, she'll be back this weekend, I think. But uh she's got property right down there on St. Augustine. Mm-hmm right there on that beautiful street in the world and all that other stuff, and she's actually thinking about putting a wedding venue right there. And she should. And I was like, you know what you ought. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

So Well, I would have done it except for we've already sunk the cost for my daughter's wedding, and I know all the vendors.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Yeah. I know all the subs, you know, and well, in the long run, it's kind of saving you a little bit of money because weddings aren't cheap any day gummore.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Well, that's what I'm saying. That so I'm gonna get on that side. Yeah. I want to get on the side where they're like, hey man, we want to come out and do a rustic country wedding, you know, because we got cattle and sheep and goats and chickens and all the good stuff, and the lake and pole barn and greenhouse and all the things and Yeah, man. And I'm just gonna tap into that uh tap into that. Why not?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Well, here's a thought. I'm adding to your to your thing here. You could have the wedding venue and all that other stuff. Is there any way you could make like a little place off the wedding venue where you could like have rooms for the the wedding party and stuff and they could just stay there on site and well we could do that eventually.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

You know, I think we'd start out we could, yes, to answer your question. I mean the other thing is too, you can you pull up a camper or throw up a tent. Yeah. If you don't want to leave, we can lock you in and nobody's gonna get you know get hurt. But yeah, put the keys in the bowl and y'all go have fun. Have big time. Just don't swim in the pond. No skinny dipping in the pond.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Yeah, no, it ain't happening. No cow tipping and no skinny dipping. Come on. Now you're taking all the fun out of it.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

God, I remember that back in the days.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, well, we've got a I'm not gonna say that my wife and I aren't gonna skinny dip because we probably will. We've got uh it's I'm filling it in right now. So I'm filling my pond in right now so that I can have it ready for my daughter's wedding. And it's uh about an acre and a half, uh about 13 feet deep. And I just built a dock that goes 10 feet out over it and has a covered roof over half of it. So there's half of it you get out in the sun, and then half you can be under it. So it's a perfect spot for a wedding. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Yeah, but you also uh you've created a perfect spot for a lot of people just wanting to come out and take pictures there, too.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe so. I don't know. We'll find out. I don't know what's gonna hold, but we've got it, we got it dial, we're getting it dialed in. We got two weeks from tomorrow to pull this thing off. So that's gonna be cool. Yeah, hopefully, you know. Hopefully we get some rain between now and then. Because I had to seed this, I had to, you know, we had to grade and seed out all the way around the dam and all around the pond and the bottom. And we need rain, and then I need it to stop, you know, right on time. Stop today for the wedding.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Yeah, yeah. That would be fun as I'll get out. I can't wait. I take it you like the guy she's marrying.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

He's a good dude, yeah. His uh she she met him my daughter got into the aeronautical engineering school in UT and uh and and met him there they were in a fraternity together an engineering fraternity together COVID hit and she split and uh you know they sent everybody home and then she ended up going up to uh South Dakota and did a a a like an internship with Cargill the soybean soybean manufacturer Cargill's a massive company oh yeah it's huge uh largest independently owned largest privately owned company in the United States Cargill yeah anyway so she was there for eight months and she came back and she said dad I don't think I want to be an engineer and I said which we did my wife and I like well okay we knew that beforehand but yeah so she came back and she said I think I want to be a chef because my my wife is a off the off the charts chef and um so she actually next thing I know she's going to Swiss she went to Switzerland and did culinary school in Switzerland for a couple years and came back. And now she's uh she's actually down at St. Pete that's why I'm wearing this hat that's a St. Pete hat and she's the she was a Sioux chef at the Ven at the Elliott Astor restaurant in the Vanoy Hotel which is the Pink Hotel in St. Pete everybody knows it as the Pink Hotel but it's been refurbished and the chef there is a uh Michelin she's a Michelin award winning chef and uh anyway my daughter just uh took the gig to be the director of all the food for the hotel and the restaurants there so it's a pretty big deal and uh so this is really a promotion this is really an information about my daughter I guess is what it turned out being well I mean that uh I'm sitting there thinking you got the wedding venue going on yeah she's a chef yeah you got all this thing well she's down in St.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Pete she's not here but my wife's a chef that's what I'm saying dude you you've she can flak get after it and then put the stage out there and party it up and man.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I'm telling you living a dream living a dream no frog gigging because I've got a I had to put a liner in my pond because we didn't have any clay so that hold water in I had to put a plastic liner in. So nope the only thing we can't do there is gigging. Oh man you know that sucks it does I ain't frog gigging forever yeah that was fun back in the day but we'll have them we'll you'll hear them because we won't be we won't be hunting them anyway sorry I got a little bit of a frog myself.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Well you're fine I'm we don't have a gig here so you're good.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Cool yeah I don't know why I guess it's everybody cutting hay you know it's allergies are worse this year. I've had a lot of people tell you that it's drier it's so dry last year we couldn't stay out of the rain yeah and this year we're begging for it you know I had about six feet of rain no kidding we had like 58 inches of rain on my farm last year. That's a lot that is crazy or no I'm sorry yeah almost almost five feet of rain.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Yeah so quite a bit yeah me and uh Lisa was laughing because she went down to Florida and uh they hadn't had rain and and some kind of drought or something like that in so long. She gets down there and the very next night that she's there it starts raining and it's been raining on and off ever since she got down there. Well we sure need it. Yeah I told her I said well come on back up here and bring it with you bring it with you.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yeah we need it. We're about I think last I checked about eight to nine inches under what we should be this time of year.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Not good.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

No no but for me I don't uh so I do regenerative grazing which means I move cattle we keep in small paddocks and we move them every other day or every day. So we don't have we don't have the need for hay. Right. And our grass gets tall and our grass because it's tall it holds moisture. So um then it's better there's a multitude of things it's better for their animals better for the soil um and it can sustain long droughts like we have now.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

So yeah I love that I miss that it's an old school way of you know it's uh it was the way people used to farm years and years ago they moved their cattle they used they call it it's called nutrient cycling they move their cattle and um just like you know back in the days when the American West was roamed with bison you know they didn't stay in one spot they moved all the time. No they constantly moved and they came back to it when so anyway same concept on a much smaller you know much smaller platform but that's the idea move the cattle and and uh and help the good grass grow.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Yeah but um with that though I mean you I can see where you're doing certain things and you're moving the cattle and you're having there's also those moments when you can just focus really on the beauty of it all. Oh sure and that helps a lot of people with being able to think of a song or a story that could make a good song you know and and there's a lot of stuff like that and it's not three people that's never even been on a farm in their life coming up with a song you know for sure no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

I mean I hope but uh I hope you know if someone ever comes out to our place they get inspired to do something creatively you know I could but it would probably be a hold my beer moment.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

For sure which I think me and my friends back in the day actually started that yeah you probably did some of that yourself who knows a little bit a little bit we're not telling you know oh I don't mind I don't have any I mean I can honestly say I never went to jail so there you go. You wanna know why we didn't go back to jail back then? Probably they told you to go home didn't they? Well uh every now and then we were told to go home but we didn't have to worry about pictures being took every five seconds.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah yeah yeah no doubt all that other crap right that that's what yeah you know there was a stretch here in the in the music industry where every song seemed like it had some sort of back road or dirt road or something um which was a it got a little tired you know but I lived that life. Yeah I mean I lived up in a little bitty small town in southern Indiana and my buddies and I I mean we would we would you know we would somehow secure a case of beer or two and oh yeah get out on the back roads and we'd find a creek and uh we would pull the truck into the creek sit on the tailgate and have music cranked up all kind of music and uh and uh just you know we were harmless we weren't going anywhere a lot of us were we actually we we were going to a cabin about a mile from where we were so we weren't ever drinking and driving or any of that mess but uh we at least knew better than to do that but we we'd get on the back roads you know and we'd go hunker down somewhere. Yeah we were before going on back back roads was in style we were doing it.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Oh yeah well it's one of my early friends his grandfather had a farm um right there in Goodletsville and uh we would go four wheeling and stuff like that and then we'd always end up at the farm and we'd start a bonfire and we'd have you know five to ten people there you know just hanging out and somebody'd always drag out a guitar and we would start playing and hanging out and talking and cutting up and but we didn't go drive afterward you know we just we stayed right there. That's where we camped out for the night you know yeah and that's uh that that was yeah that's what we did we didn't have cell phones we didn't have uh you know I'll I'll see y'all tomorrow you know that kind of thing I'm going out but we had a lot of we had a lot of good memories come from that you know oh sure and that's what uh your music actually resonated on a lot of that I mean take it outside I I was just sitting there thinking I loved every daggone bit of that song it told a lot of stories about really how I grew up and then it triggered the what kids are missing today.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Sure you know oh yeah yeah I mean I I grew up in Little Beady Town like I said so you know I had three brothers and we'd get up on the weekends if you know and or through the summer our parents were teachers so they were off through the summertime but we'd get up at be outside at you know seven and eight in the morning yeah and we'd run wide open until my I can hear my mom hollering you know folks come in you know we'd be down the next neighborhood or whatever you know playing tag or you know you name it and uh and I could hear hear my mom hollering all the way down and we'd we'd go home reluctantly five minutes later. But yeah we rode our bikes all over you know oh yeah so the line about the BMX I mean that's that's lived and uh wading in the creek obviously I did a lot of that growing up a lot of that uh still uh where I live today I've got a smallmouth stream on three sides of my farm. Sweet. So I wait it uh when I get the chance and uh I love it. Love it you know oh yeah um so well I mean better watch out I might be knocking on your door going hey can I just walk around for a little bit it's a pretty it's it's one of those deals it's uh it's been a lifelong I've always wanted to uh where I am now I mean I've gotten close to it I built a cabin out in Lapers Fork you know forever ago and uh but I was I I didn't have the water on me. Uh you know I lived in a great place in Fernvale which is kind of between Lapers Fork and Fairview. Yeah had a great place there but didn't have the water on me. Always on dirt you know always out on some dirt but where we found our place now it's just it clicked every box. I mean it's got the pastures it's got the woods it's got the it's got wildlife it's got uh fencing or some fencing I had to put a whole bunch of fencing up yeah but the the the real deal uh sealer was the the creek on three sides that uh I've got about a mile and a half mile plus of creek footage frontage.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Sweet. Yeah I love that yeah that'd be an awesome but fun I can't wait till you get it all done man.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Yeah I mean yeah I'm excited to have I mean we're gonna have the thing ready here in a few weeks so I mean I think uh I think um I'm not exactly sure what we're gonna I mean we call our farm Spring Valley Farm so it may be um Spring Valley Farm you know weddings or something I'm not sure but I want the Dagum I want the stage I want to see everything that you can do out there because that would be a big plus for a lot of people yeah I mean it would be a cool thing to do uh I just my only concern is is you know first and foremost we're ranchers you know we're raising cattle and and we are for profit so I can't have anybody messing my fences up and messing the cattle up things like that cattle's too expensive to be harming oh yeah exactly so yeah I mean I think we have the way we could do it we could actually have a pretty good show. I mean we could probably have like I said we're gonna have 150 for my daughter's wedding we could have probably 400 maybe three hundred three four hundred people easy where where the stu where the stage and all that stuff's gonna be yeah well I mean which is which is cool man I don't think you need to have I mean we don't need to be you know some of those places like uh what's the one in Manchester that's gotten out of control boom uh um what's the what's the concert uh out in Manchester Bonaroo Bonaro's yeah so Bonaroo's gone crazy exploded you know to where you have thousands and thousands of people and every year someone die a couple people die from drugs and heat exhaustion and everything else I'm not I'm not cool with that. Yeah you know I mean I don't want any of that mess. I've never been to it. Well I haven't either but I just don't want that to h I would never want that type of right capacity. Yeah. Because you could do it I have the pastures to do it. I mean I could have I could have probably three thousand people if I wanted oh yeah four thousand but I don't want that yeah well I mean that's I miss Starwood and then my neighbors would shoot me probably yeah their little country roads aren't equipped for that type of volume.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

But see I'm I'm from that era of Nashville where Starwood was there and they had all kinds of great concerts and it was a wonderful venue and they just tore it down one day for no reason.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

So yeah I saw uh I saw I saw Willie Nelson there um so right before it was torn down he was on tour with John Mellencamp. Yeah I saw him also with uh John Fogarty yeah and uh it was good you know it's a great that's what a great venue it was yeah so up in Indian in Indianapolis we have a um a venue called Deer Creek yeah just south of Indianapolis that was very much like um Starwood right yeah yeah just like it that's cool yeah I love all that well brother man I appreciate you coming on being on the show man yeah yeah I'm pleasure I love learning all this stuff about you and everything and and I love the music that you're doing and well that's the most important thing I mean I'm I'm glad you I'm glad you and I I think we got a friendship started here for sure but what's I've always said and Jason's heard me say this time and time and time again on our calls we have our kind of our our our our little music calls with my team and you know we have to do things that uh and like and I don't mean like this is a cool thing to do. Yeah but I'm not a big fan of like social media and all that stuff and I don't like anything that seems uh hokey or smoke and mirrors. Yeah I don't like it and I can sniff it out pretty good. Yeah and and and I've always said that the music needs to stand on its own two feet. Music has to stand if you have to convince somebody that it's good it's not yeah it's simple as that. My big thing is you know if they have to cram it down your face so I'm gonna I'm gonna say this I was in Minneapolis a couple nights ago and uh I heard this radio guy talking about these artists coming on there there's a show coming up or a fair or something other and I'm not gonna name the artist but and they just said and this artist is going to knock your socks off and da da da da and I was like not with the music he's putting out he's not yeah but you're convincing people you're trying to do this Freudian uh psychosis here convincing people to believe you know gaslighting people to to believe something that's not true because he's not yeah well I mean that's like I hear people all the time you know they they go to announce somebody but there's like five minutes of accolades before they ever say the name and it's like why are you working them up so dang I'm big and then you hear them and you're just like oh okay yeah I mean I don't I I want everybody to be successful. I'm not I have no no I'm not envious and I'm not jealous and and I don't have that uh I don't I I want everyone to you know I know how hard it is to to to try to break through in this industry so God bless you if you get that chance and and make the most of it while you can is is always been my attitude but the music has to for me the music has to stand on its own two feet. Yeah so it's got to be fun. It's just gotta be right. It's gotta be real. I mean I can honestly say I think the one thing about our organization that I've always been kind of one the music has to be real and I'd rather have 10 real fans listeners than a hundred phonies. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I don't care if we don't have as many fan or so-called clicks or streams or likes or whatever they're called. Yeah but the ones we have we know they're legitimate. That's all I I just want to be my my whole thing is is is making sure that the music is a true representation of me and and that the music hits a high mark and and stays there and that everything we do is is real and legitimate. You know it's just because the last thing I want to do is have somebody come out to a show and be disappointed. Yeah like oh man this guy sucks you know what I mean like I'm not saying that people won't say that. I mean they could they could come out and say oh this guy sucks but you know we're gonna do our very best we're gonna sing the best songs we can we're gonna try to write record the best songs we can we're gonna try to absolutely perform the best way the best we can. Yeah so that's that's my whole thing man. So when you said the mus it's all about the music if it's and that's unfortunately that's not what this industry's about. This industry's not about the music. And I I hate to say it and I may get scolded but the truth is is the music's the last thing people give a dang about I mean in the industry. In the industry but songwriters care about it players care about it. I care about it but the folks that wouldn't know a you know the folks that wouldn't know um wouldn't know a a a B flat from you know I mean you know what I'm saying a G from an F from a D you know they don't care about it. They don't know nothing about the numbers system either so no no no no no but anyway that's where I won't it's business and not art it's kind of it's coming it's kind of gone to it it is kind of a popularity contest right so I mean uh it used to be they developed art develop artists for a long time they invest in the artists and those days are gone you know uh if you're not putting out a platinum you know now I don't even know how they measure it. I guess it's all about streams anymore and and all that good stuff it's different but all the craziness of it but anyway. But see I'm more the the music's got to be fun it uh I believe in the organic growth of things I don't believe where people can go out and they can buy followers and they can buy subscribers and all those stuff they do trust me and it's nuts I don't I don't get it well it happens and some of sometimes it happens unintentionally like we had a whole deal where we had a bunch of fake we had bots that we somehow we found out in our uh by kind of doing a dig into our own numbers like some of this isn't jiving. So what do we do? We could have left them and had false numbers but I literally spent a lot of money to have them purged. Even though it made my numbers go down I'd rather have real people that I can say hey I Mr. Club owner I've got 1000 listeners in your city that are real. Not not 5000 and only a thousand or five hundred to show up you know yeah so uh we try to be cognizant of that and and uh making sure that we're um just we just want to run a we're just trying to run a good operation as best we can you know and we want the music to be fun I want the move that music needs to move people emotionally that's what I've learned from some master songwriters whether that's happy sad whatever it is but then it needs to emote so the music needs to cause emotion and if it doesn't cause emotion I don't know what I don't know what it is. Yeah you know I I totally understand that so I get it it's been awesome having you on Dave I mean it's uh well come out and see us sometime uh come out and see us man and and we'll do some more stuff down the road um I I hope to have uh we got a new single coming out in June 5th that's called uh all summer long and uh we're stoked about that it's one I've co-wrote with a buddy of mine it's his first cut sweet he's uh Hoosier uh he and I used to play we used to be roommates and he played in a band with me for many many years a great cat named Troy Clampett uh and uh you don't get much more heelbilly than Wilbert and Clampett so you know it's like the uh what with those boys in Kentucky the um the uh McCoys and the uh um Hatfields and McCoys like Wilbert and Clampett I mean sheet um but yeah so it's uh man it's an up tempo thing it's called all summer long and we hope people play it all summer long and we'll make sure you guys get a copy of it here soon and uh I'm stoked about it man it it really turned out um and I'll give you real quick behind the scenes so I started writing that with Troy in twenty twenty four yeah uh I had fallen off my roof I was doing gutter work up on my roof like an idiot fell off about 10 feet, landed on a concrete sidewalk and shattered my right heel. Not good. So I was laid up for a good bit, and uh anyway, he had sent me this melody, and it was summertime and I couldn't get out to do anything, you know. Yeah. On the 21st. So I was laid up and I was missing that uh because I love going out. I love love going out on the boat, you know. Boat's a good time. And grew up, I didn't really grew up doing it as a kid much, but as I got older, um, I had friends with boats. Those are the best friends to have, by the way. Oh yeah. I tried to make as many of them as I can. That's right. So so anyway, I was kind of Jonesing for the boat, and uh, he had sent over really cool uh a few lyrics and a and a melody, and and then next thing you know, we started tuning this thing up and playing it a little bit and working on it, and then really kind of put it away. And then last year, when I knew I was going in, I was gonna be coming in this spring, or actually we went and tracked it in December. Last kind of end of last in 25, sometime around uh September ish of last year, we made like, all right, let's finish this, let's make sure we got this thing dialed in. So we kind of combed, we kind of smoothed it out, the rough edges, and kind of cleaned it up a little bit and kind of got found that okay, this is it's is it singable, is it believable, is it is it catchy enough? It will people remember it, you know what I mean? Yeah. Kind of hit all those uh criteria. And I kind of and then I, you know, I threw it off some of some folks in my camp uh with with really good ears. We we lost our uh uh my manager, Eddie Blunt. We lost him in November last year, unfortunately, but uh uh he had a very, very strict uh criteria when it came to songs, and for for him to say, hey man, you've written this, it's a good one, let's go cut it. That was kind of that last piece of validation that I had to have. So yeah, man, we're stoked about it, and uh I'm I'm I'm eager for you guys to hear it. And then we got some stuff coming out right behind it. And uh who knows, man. We're we're we're I don't know what the future holds as far as if we're just gonna be streaming only or if we're gonna have the opportunity with uh partner maybe to get stuff on the radio again. I don't know. We'll see. We also have that song Take It Outside that you mentioned. It's gonna be in a movie next year. Um, pretty sure in the uh winter of or yeah, be like January, February 27th. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

So yeah, that's I love how a lot of movies now are actually tapping into more music. You okay over it, Galen?

SPEAKER_03 46:42

Yeah, I was trying to hold it back, but it didn't work. God bless you.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Almost felt the wind off that. I mean, geez.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

I think it's from the dust on this uh black magic because I was wiping it off.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

Oh, okay. Well, there's a hair can over there.

SPEAKER_03 46:58

I see that.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

See? There you have it. That's the way it goes. Dave, tell everybody where they can find you, bud.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Well, you can find me here on the David Bradley show, by golly. Well, that's one place. Oh by golly. Uh so we're on all the uh we're on all of the social formats. So uh Facebook and Instagram, X, uh we're on uh all the streaming formats. So uh Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, YouTube, all those things. And then uh live, my my closest show coming up June the 13th, up in uh it's up in Kentucky at MB Roland. It's a distillery. Okay. We're playing a gig there. It's in Christian County, Kentucky. I think that's Greater Hopkinsville.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

And then a week following, if you're down kind of west of Nashville, they got a really cool thing in my county in Hickman County in Centerville, it's called the Ag and Arts Tour.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

And uh people go around for two different regenerative farms seeing, you know, how they grow um not only vegetables, but how they raise animals uh holistically. Um and uh there's everything from chicken to beef and pork and eggs and honey and all that stuff. And uh one of the one of the fellas, a buddy of mine, um asked me to uh he's got a f farm called Andy's Farm.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Andy is his son, and his son is severely autistic. And uh anyway, he's one of the stops on the uh tour, and we are kind of closing it out, headlining the thing at his place. So Andy's Farm. It's in Hickman County, and I think that's June 13th. I think downbeats at 6 30, and I think the one in up in Kentucky is at 5 30. So those are the first two things that I'm gonna be doing. I took a whole lot of time off to get ready for this wedding. So we're gonna get vamped up and ramped up and get back after it, and we're we, you know, we're looking forward to going out and playing as much as we can.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Now you just gotta train uh the baby goat to go with you and send out a speaker or something.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Yeah, so we have uh I'll end it with this. So that's so that's Maybelle. Maybell was born on Mother's Day, so hopefully she's found. She was missing when I came here, but we've got about uh I think we've got 20 goats, and about half of them are babies. So we got a lot of them. Dude. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

So now you can actually start the uh where they do the yoga and have the baby goats and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

We could do that. You could do that too.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

Man, that would be awesome. Yeah, yeah. Dave, I appreciate you being on, but yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Thank you for the time.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

Appreciate you. I appreciate you. And uh we'll stay in touch because I hope I would like to get you back on later on and when you get some more stuff going and and uh tell everybody about the accolades of what Mr. Wilbur has been doing.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

Sure. Well, hopefully we'll have something to say. I can promise you we'll be we'll be relieved because the wedding will be done and and uh And nothing else we'll talk about baby goats the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

We'll talk about rain and fashion.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

All right, brother. I appreciate you. All right, audios. Uh everybody, please remember go and check out Dave Wilbert, all the socials, stream of some of his music. Uh y'all are gonna be blown away by what this man has been creating. I find it very refreshing because he's actually talking about a lot of the lifestyle that a lot of people haven't had the obligation to go and find out about and and opportunity, and uh it almost makes you want to wish you could grab a lot of people and go, hey, come on, let's go down here and we're gonna teach you how to do this and how to do that. Maybe that could be on a different episode. I don't know, but we'll figure it out. Everybody, please like, share, follow, and subscribe. It helps these artists, it helps these artists with the booking agent. If you want to get these artists to your town, that booking agent is gonna look at the streams, the shares, the follows, the subscribers. And these guys, if you do get them into your town, they love taking pictures with you, they love signing autographs, they love meeting you, and they love hearing a little bit of a story that you might have. Let's all help each other out. That is what the music community is indeed all about. We love helping everybody out. All right, we're out of here. Love ya, mean it. Bye.